Keeping a Hunting/Trapping Journal

With the deer season winding down I hope everyone has been successful but I’m sure that most of us have also had some heart stopping moments and at least one that got away. I’ve gotten closer to and have seen more of the “big boy” who is a beautiful 8 pointer than I have in the past 3 years but I still got some time so in spite of the cold this diehard will be out as much as possible to try and add another line to my journal.

When I first started hunting I never thought of keeping a journal. I always thought I would remember but of course as I got older realized that writing things down was a much better way to go. As a matter of fact the first entries of my journal which was started in 1998 were pieced together bit by bit from memory – my first doe was taken my senior year in high school in 1988. Although I think those 10 years were pretty well recorded I’m quite certain I missed a few details – the sights, the sounds, the smells of the fresh snow and the chill of “widow-maker” winds I’m sure were missed. Unfortunately, because of such as busy life the past few years I have also been slacking as well and must rely again on memory to fill in those gaps but it gets more difficult as you get older and that only reinforces and highlights my need to keep my hunting journal more updated.

Why keep a hunting journal if it is such a pain in the rear? There are quite a few reasons and the first I have touched on already and that is simply that one day memories are all I’m going to have and recording them will make the later stages of life that much easier. Secondly, if you plan on passing down your hunting skills to your children then there really isn’t too many better ways to do so. Realistically, my father and I only had a few years in the woods together. After he was diagnosed with diabetes his hunting days were limited and these days he only gets out on opening day so my journal is in a way planning ahead so if my days in the woods with my kids are limited I can rely on my journal to help pass the torch.

Of course I’m still living in the present where my journal has proved quite useful. Over the past few years I have been able to establish trends on the properties that I hunt. On my Uncle’s place for example I started out by putting out relatively random tree stands and it was literally hit and miss as to whether or not I actually saw any deer forget about getting a shot but as time went on I would re-read my journal from year to year and placed my tree stands in much more effective areas. Last year I put a double tree stand in a wind break between two fields that form an “L” in front of me and have taken 3 deer from that location in just over a year. I now affectionately call that stand the “death chamber”. With the help of my journal I’ve been able to pattern the deer (turkeys for that matter too) with more predictability and have been successful as a result. Establishing trends also holds true for the golf course I bowhunt although admittedly it has been more difficult there because the area is much bigger and much more open plus there are limited areas for tree stands but still cataloguing my hunting expeditions has shaped my approach and I’ve been successful there as well.

So what goes into a journal? Maybe I’m being too formal and picky but I think it appropriate to come up with a good name. My hunting journal is named simply “hunting journal” while trapping is called “the trapline”. I never kept a fishing journal and mostly because my summers which is when I would do most of my fishing is just so busy I never get a chance to go anyway except a few guided salmon trips and maybe salt water out of Captree but are chronicled by so many pictures that I’m sure I can put it all together if I ever get 5 minutes to myself. Each entry should have the day, date and time you were out. Of course the weather should be written down since many times the weather is a huge factor in hunting success and failure. My only advice when writing the actual text is to write down EVERYTHING and please don’t be so serious that your journal reads like the New York Times. Put in all the jokes, screw-ups, excuses, the bets you made and won and who got the “Sir S**t Shot” award for the day. This is your life you’re writing down here at least make it entertaining! Mine is laced with self-criticism, a sense of humor that probably only my wife understands and a whole lot of awesome wildlife experiences.

Obviously, we’re not talking about publishing your great work of non-fiction although for some that might be a realistic goal but that said don’t worry about spelling and punctuation etc.. Don’t try to be Stephen King. The best advice I ever got when it came to writing magazine/blog articles was to just write as if you are sitting down with your buddy with a beer in your hand yapping away. Even if writing does actually scare you that much then just take tons of pics and/or videos, which most of us do anyway and write a few notes on the back of each one to chronicle your hunting journeys.

In a way this blog is an additional hunting journal. It has helped me remember what I love about hunting: seeing a rutting buck, outsmarting a turkey, a beautiful sunrise, the camaraderie of hunting buddies past and present and of course at the end of the day a venison barbecue.